When
Where
144 West 65th Street, New York, New York, 10023
Event Type
When?
October 25-31, 2024
Where?
Film at Lincoln Center
About Screening
One of the most beloved Soviet-era films, winner of multiple international awards, Sergei Parajanov’s visionary feature from 1965 summons a world of psychedelic folklore and ritual with bracing originality. Set in a remote village in the Carpathian Mountains, the story follows Ivan (Ivan Mykolaichuk) and Marichka (Larisa Kadochnikova), star-crossed lovers whose families are embroiled in a blood feud. When Ivan marries another woman but continues to pine for Marichka, his wife solicits the aid of a sorcerer to win him back, setting off a flurry of both natural and seemingly supernatural forces. Parajanov, aided by his brilliant cinematographers Yuri Illienko and Viktor Bestayev, creates a delirious, magically charged atmosphere that fully captures the sense of a folk legend brought to shimmering life; its multilayered imagery, free spirited camerawork, set design, and soundtrack straddles the line between ethnography and surrealism, and the result is simply a sensuous tour de force. Despite its international acclaim, the film ran afoul of the Soviet authorities, who mistrusted what they saw as its celebration of a unique Ukrainian culture. A Janus Films release.
